Why do people never take our advice as Graphic Designers?

Hi,
I work as part of a team of designers for an organisation. We create a lot of design work/logos etc internally. But what frustrates us is when we give advice and artwork on a certain design or style, a lot of staff ignore us, and feel the need to criticise - telling us their ideas are better than our advice. I don't mean in a nasty way, they just see their projects as 'their baby's' and have a vision of how something should look. Yet when we follow branding guidelines but with a clever twist so our design 'works' really well - they just don't get it!

You must know what i mean.... someone sends you a poor logo attempt in Word, so we adapt it into a great design in Illustrator, targeting its audience, yet they look at it and think it's OK to tell us to change this, change that. Then a stand-off ensues when we stand up for what we've done. Why don't people realise WE ARE THE EXPERTS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN - that's what the company employed us for - but we always seem to be the ones told to stand down - or to 'meet them halfway'. I'm all for constructive criticism, but we never tell others in the company how to do their jobs - so why should we be told how to do ours!

Sorry for the outrage - but it does frustrate us as designers! We HAVE talked to hierarchy here about the problem but they don;t understand our problem either - and just want to keep company harmony... ie 'meet them halfway'.

Btw - we are good designers with many years experience - so we know exactly how a project should be handled from a design pov.

This is a problem endemic to, well, everything. All "experts" are criticized by someone who thinks they know better. In many ways, this is a good things - blind deference to expertise is a terrible thing. So, yes, you will always see people challenge your expertise as an expert (we all will) and the best you can do is argue your case using your knowledge to support it.

I think every trade or "job" has this in it to a degree. We have all been on the delivery and receiving end of it as well, whether we realize it or not. I know I've experienced the same thing in landscaping, in IT and in law enforcement. That's just how humans play together in general. Don't let it get to you, and you'll be a happier person.

I've been a professional photographer for 36 yrs. and with digital cameras getting pretty good, everybody's now a professional photographer. Same for the graphic design world.

I would say to make your client feel he's in charge and instead of confrontational, make your comments and suggestion using the words 'you, yours, them' and not 'I'.

No different than when I shoot a commercial job and there's an art director there that thinks he knows it all. If you don't make them feel you're on their side, they'll take over. A good phrase is 'You must have a reason for wanting to change XXXX, may I ask why YOU feel that way?'

On the one end of this, I used to work for a designer that had his degree in graphic design on his wall. When someone would ask for a change, he would point to it and say "do you have one of these? No? Then shut up and go away. Come back when you have one." (to be fair, if the suggestion/change/idea was a good one he would not do that, and instead thank them).

On the other end was my father in law, who was the MASTER of the "you not I' concept above. He would listen to the dumb idea in full, then say "have you considered ..." and then explain why he did what he did, and why the dumb idea was dumb. They generally agreed, though occasionally he would have to carry out their suggestion and show them visually why it was a dumb idea.

On the one end of this, I used to work for a designer that had his degree in graphic design on his wall. When someone would ask for a change, he would point to it and say "do you have one of these? No? Then shut up and go away. Come back when you have one." (to be fair, if the suggestion/change/idea was a good one he would not do that, and instead thank them).

On the other end was my father in law, who was the MASTER of the "you not I' concept above. He would listen to the dumb idea in full, then say "have you considered ..." and then explain why he did what he did, and why the dumb idea was dumb. They generally agreed, though occasionally he would have to carry out their suggestion and show them visually why it was a dumb idea.

Ran across this thread while doing searches for Graphic Design and it brought back memories..

My story... I work at a PC company (eeek!) in R&D and have been for many years. Am currently in the server side of the biz but two years ago I was spending a short stint in the notebook side. I was in the software dev group managing some app development. I recall working with my developers to ensure the apps in dev were functional per the required specs. Working with these guys day by day, I got to know how tough their job was trying to get the requested functionality out of the app knowing the programing tools do have certain limitations. Part of the spec for the app included the GUI of course. Well, guess where the input for the GUI comes from? Yes, the Graphic Designers up in the ID department. When having meetings with these ID guys to "negotiate" the GUI due to issues with "what they want" vs "what we can do", naturally they would insist on what they wanted. My point is... sometimes the issue is more "feasibility and/or tool limitations" rather than just what each group wants.

Anywho, just made me laugh when I ran across the thread cause those were good times for me. Learned a ton working with those folks.

One thing I learned in my graphic design days is that sometimes, the non-designer is right. Even good designers can get stuck in a rut or married to a particular idea. Steve Jobs, among others, have proven that sometimes a non-designer can hit it on the head. You have to be willing to listen and honestly consider the idea -- even if it seems bad at first -- so that you will be able to better defend your view later. I've also noticed that when clients think you are taking them seriously, they will respond better to the eventual mutual decision to go in a different way.